Wrestling career at CSU Bakersfield led to pro career, Super Bowl ring with Patriots

Breitbard Hall of Fame

What: Breitbard Hall of Fame is on display at the San Diego Hall of Champions in Balboa Park

Induction: During 67th annual Salute to the Champions dinner

When: 6:30 p.m. Monday, Town & Country Resort

Tickets: (619) 699-2338

Stephen Neal went from playing football for San Diego High, to playing football not at all for seven years, to winning a roster spot with the New England Patriots, to becoming one of Bill Belichick’s favorite players, to starting at guard in a Super Bowl victory.

Pretty exciting stuff, wasn’t it?

“It’s pretty exciting as far as football goes,” Neal said.

Neal found exhilaration on wrestling mats, too. Without wrestling, he says, he would not have gone to Cal State Bakersfield on scholarship and won two NCAA titles, would not have made the Patriots and lasted 10 years in the NFL, would not have planted the American flag on a foreign mat, in hostile Turkey, 24 years ago.

Wrestling, as much as football, if not more than football, launched Neal’s journey in athletics — one that now, several championships later, will take the Poway resident into the Breitbard Hall of Fame.

On the wrestling mats, a prevailing toughness was revealed and developed in Neal.

“I’m a very stubborn person,” he said, “and in wrestling, you either accept getting beat up, or you just decide that you don’t want to get beat up anymore, and you start fighting back.

“So, I started fighting back.”

Recalling his careers in both sports, the 36-year-old said he is grateful to former coaches and teammates too numerous to identify off the cuff.

Neal cheered for several San Diego sports teams, and still does. Watching the Sockers in the Sports Arena was “a lot of fun,” and he referred to the Padres as “we” when recalling the 1998 World Series against the Yankees.

As such, he said he owes a thank you to his fellow inductees in the Breitbard class of 2013: Trevor Hoffman, the former Padres closer; Brian Quinn, the playmaking hub of several championship-winning Sockers teams; and the late Junior Seau, one of his favorite Chargers players and later a teammate with the Patriots.

“These were all people that made you proud of your town of San Diego,” Neal said. “I’m very honored. I love San Diego; I love my town. I’m proud of it.

“To be in that group is pretty special.”

He has three Super Bowl rings and also played for the Patriots team that went 18-0 before losing to the Giants in Super Bowl 42.

Steering a recent chat from football to wrestling, he recalled his victory in the 1999 world championships, against a Turkish opponent in Turkey.

The two were heavyweights, competing in the 286-pound class.

“It was kind of a hostile situation,” he said. “The fans weren’t really big American fans over there. So, getting to have the American flag raised, and have all the people in that gymnasium have to listen to that song, the national anthem, and see that flag — that was something that was really special, because it wasn’t just about me, it was about the country that I live in and that I represented, and getting to showcase that to the Turkish people.”